Turks & Caicos report

[reel fool]

Arrived in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos on Thursday, June 4...known as Provo. John's new boat cleared customs a few days before we arrived, so I began work on the new World Cat 290DC on Friday. Lots to do. New boat, nothing rigged, electronics to learn, sort out the bugs, etc... The boat is a catamarran. I have fished on a 26 ft Glacier Bay & a 26 ft World Cat. This boat is like a new generation of catamarans. FAR outperforms those other 2 cats. This is a new design & they got it right. Absolutely amazing ride.

We fished on Sunday, a shake-down cruise. A few toothy bites, with one mystery bite in about 30 fathoms.

Back to boat work on Monday, when the tournament director, Art, got ahold of John & wrestled him into entering the Caicos Classic. So, with just 3 partial days of work on the boat, to get it ready to fish, sort the tackle, etc...lots to do, we were set to fish a tournament against the 55, 60, 65+ ft custom sportfishers...here we go.

Day 1
We fished the eastern corner of North Caicos, about 17 miles from Turtle Cove marina. A boat not in the tourney (don't recall the name of the boat) jumped off a blue marlin in about 30 fathoms just west of us....makes you wonder what the mystery bite was on Sunday. While working our way towards them, about 3-4 miles away, Rob on the D.A. Sea hooks up a blue one, in the area of that boat. They pulled the hook on that fish. Still no one with a fish in the tourney.

We get a crash bite on the long rigger, takes drag, and jumps off. A blue marlin about 175 lbs....still no fish for anyone in the tourney. Rob went on to get 4 more bites, finally releasing just one of those fish, for the first blue marlin of day 1. About 4:10 (fishing ends 4:30 each day) we get a crash bite on the 7 inch blue/white jet, and hook a 40 lbs white marlin. Not alot of whites typically caught here, so it was a somewhat unusual (and unexpected) hook up. We catch our fish and we are on the board, with just the second, and only other, fish caught on day 1. So, at the end of Day 1, 8 boats released just 2 out of maybe 10 bites, a blue for D.A. Sea and a white for Lady Tamara...the outboard catamaran is in second place!

Day 2
We fished the same spot again on Day 2, Wednesday. The wind was light, very light, so John ran his own new baby out to the fishing grounds. The "No Excuse", a Spencer boat (about 64', not sure), passed us on the way out, until John let 'er eat and we passed her, doing about 36 knots...but that didn't last. We were running at about 5500 rpms, a bit high, so we had to pull back, and they passed us again. We were happy to be making 26 knots, without bumping along. The action slowed for the day, with fewer bites, but a few more catches....3 for the day. 2 blue marlin, 1 white marlin for the 8 boat fleet. Our only bite came about 3:00 or so, with us missing a blue marlin about 250 lbs. The fish was "hootered", which is where the bite (curve) of the hook is wrapped over the bill of the fish, not hooked into its mouth. The fish usually easily gets away, as the hook slides off the bill....ours escaped.

Our bite came within 1/2 mile of each of the other 2 bites on day 1.

The blue marlin bite is a little slow overall in Provo at the moment, but we are happy to have had a bite each of the 2 days so far. Will give a report after day 3 or at least, after day 4, the end of the tourney. The jackpot is not huge, but it is winner-take-all this year, with just 8 boats entered. Top boat could win about $40K. Hopefully, it will be the sole outboard boat.

[Squidnation]

nice, congrats on the gig jeff

[Tenacious]

nice report Jeff!

[HawaiianMarlin]

Good going for the shake down run. How long will you be down there for.

[HawaiianMarlin]

Is this Jeff Kirby Kona wrangler from Bite Me. And did you say you hooked a blue in only 30 fathoms?

[reel fool]

This is Jeff, and yes, one of the boats jumped off a blue in 30 fathoms. We were not far outside that on our first bite---pretty good drop off here, but on an outboard boat, even with a 1Kw transducer, we are not getting readings on depth past about 50-60 fathoms.

[Gringo]

I think the reason you are not getting returns on your echosounder is because you are basically shining it down a wall. The slope of the drop-off is really, really steep where you are fishing. And it's hard, limestone, so the acoustic energy is being reflected out, and not back up.

Sometimes if you stop the boat completely you can get a spot reading. But even doing that we usually lose bottom by 1100 feet or so. And it keeps going to six or seven thousand.

[Roddy Hays]

Jeff,

If I may suggest a trick I used in Anguilla when I had the small 22 GB there ?

Have a friend in a bigger boat ride out with you for a couple of hours, and as he covers the contours you ride along in his wake. As he shouts the numbers, you bip 'em to your GPS. Pick a symbol for 100 fathoms, one for 200 fathoms and one for 300 or 500, and by the end of the day you should have three useful contours marked out on your GPS that'll be true forever to your boat (as compared to the "contours" that come with the mapping cartridge - which are nearly always wrong). When fishing that spot, turn off the "map" so all you have is a blank screen and your info and contours, and then you can just use the sounder for the top 200' - looking for bait and marlins.

Glad things are working out. You have fun and look after John !

[Captain Fred Archer]

Typical great advice, Rodski.

Great stuff, ya rascal!

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[reel fool]

Thanks for the good advice Roddy. Yea, things are good, John is enjoying the new boat. A few bugs to work out, worked out a few already, now some 3rd world bugs to work out---like where to get some canvas covers made!?

Fishing has been "consistent"....consistently inconsistent. Rob on the D.A. Sea has been in the bite 2 of 3 days, 8 bites...but none on day 2.

The transducer is flush to the hull, not a thru hull fitting, not transom mount, but mounted to go thru the hull....we are looking at getting the transducer that would be cut thru the hull....few things to ask first, sus out the setup on the catamaran.
T&C is beautiful, small community, decent fishing....50 lbs wahoo cut us off today, skyed out on the wide range---ate the swivel, cutting us off. only bite today.